Project Asst II/Leasing Operations Clerk

About The Unit: Residential Properties (RP) is a professional unit within Facilities Services (FS) tasked with operating the University's faculty, staff, and graduate student housing in the Hyde Park-Kenwood-Woodlawn neighborhoods. With the direction of the Senior Manager, a property management and leasing team, support clerks and janitors in collaboration with maintenance, accounting, and support personnel within FS, are responsible for all aspects of property management and customer relations for residential and commercial portfolio, off-campus parking and some departmental office space.
We support the University of Chicago's mission of research, learning, teaching and community service. The University's ability to recruit and retain students, staff and faculty depends in part on the housing opportunities RP makes available. We are charged with maintaining the highest possible occupancy level while providing excellent customer service to residents desiring to remain and renew their leases, transfer, or move-in.

Unit Job Summary: The Leasing Operations Clerk reports to the Manager of Leasing and Marketing and will provide a wide range of services to graduate students, faculty and staff. This position requires daily use of MS Office and YARDI software with a high degree of accuracy and accountability for data integrity. The Leasing Operations Clerk provides administrative support in the following essential functions:
Customer Service - Greet customers in the reception area; triage emails and telephone calls for action; ensure all inquiries are answered and/or routed appropriately and in a timely manner; interpret requests and help implement action. Handle routine tasks and provide accurate information to internal and external clients in a welcoming, knowledgeable, courteous, and professional manner. Direct non-routine resident requests to the appropriate property/leasing staff member.
Contract, Vendor and Purchasing Workflow - Provide administrative support to facilitate compliance with University of Chicago procurement requirements including but not limited to a) obtaining and managing vendor certifications and insurance; b) updating/changing stock codes in YARDI; c) ensuring accurate multi-year unit pricing for services/products in YARDI; d) entering purchase orders in BuySite; e) assisting property management staff by opening/closing work orders in YARDI; f) ordering office supplies; and g) assisting with PO generation in YARDI.
General Office Duties - Provide general office support including, but not limited to, sign-out/in logs, sending bulk email through YARDI or MS Outlook, creating intercom directories, copying/scanning/filing documents, distributing mail, responding to resident occupancy verifications, preparing meeting agendas/minutes, and receiving deliveries. Other general duties may be assigned.
Leasing Data Entry - Provide accurate data entry for graduate student leasing applications/renewals, monthly rental payments, and parking space requests.
The work of the office is seasonal, with spring, summer and early fall extremely busy with apartment turnover and related client activity and the other seasons less busy with opportunities for planning, reporting, document updates, new initiatives, research, and data management. This position is 7.5 hours each day from 8:30-5:00 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Unit Education: Bachelor's degree or a minimum of four years of property management leasing experience, required.

Unit Experience: See above.

Unit Job Function Competencies: Commitment to providing excellent customer service; ability to maintain confidentiality; and willingness to join dynamic/successful client-oriented team required.
Ability to manage multiple tasks and competing priorities simultaneously while maintaining polite professional demeanor, required.
Proven ability to communicate effectively with a wide range of constituencies both orally and in writing, required.
Ability to communicate well with diverse audiences, both within the University and to external constituents required.
Ability to work under pressure to meet deadlines and deal with competing priorities required.
Keyboarding; telephone; moving around the office and campus; long hours; sitting/standing in one place for long periods of time required.
Ability to spend extended periods of time walking in order to learn department responsibilities required.
Broad understanding of and experience with issues and policies in Facilities Services, and/or in a University setting, preferred.
YARDI experience is preferred.